Habitual Fraud Under the Mask of Religion
The following is a spoken word piece recorded outside of an immigrant church while clergy and others stood outside as a show of solidarity and support so our sisters and brothers could worship safely.
Transcript
They called it
habitual fraud under the mask of religion.
Not an error.
Not a moment of weakness.
Not one hand caught
briefly in the offering plate.
Habitual.
A practice.
A discipline.
A liturgy.
The mask goes on in the morning.
God bless America.
God save the nation.
God protect the leader.
God secure the border.
God bless the bomb.
God bless the market.
God bless the prison.
God bless the order
we have constructed
to keep certain people
on one side of the gate
and certain people
on the other.
And beneath the mask
the old machinery turns.
Power.
Money.
Fear.
Land.
Blood.
Control.
The words change.
The machinery does not.
Pharaoh had priests.
Caesar had temples.
Kings had bishops.
Plantations had preachers.
Armies had chaplains.
Empires have always preferred
a God who salutes.
A God who stamps the paperwork.
A God who approves the budget.
A God who stands obediently
behind the podium
while the ruler speaks.
This is the oldest political trick:
put heaven
on the letterhead.
And perhaps that is the fraud.
Not believing in God.
The fraud is making God
believe in us.
Drafting the Almighty
into our party.
Putting Christ
in a campaign hat.
Making the Prince of Peace
pose beside the weapons.
Making the refugee Jesus
guard the checkpoint.
Making the condemned Jesus
cheer the execution.
Making the poor Jesus
explain why the poor
must tighten their belts.
Making the brown-skinned
colonized Nazarene
the patron saint
of empire.
Habitual fraud
under the mask
of religion.
And the mask is useful.
Because without it
we might have to say plainly:
We are afraid.
We want control.
We want the land.
We want the money.
We want the oil.
We want the votes.
We want the enemy
to disappear.
We want our children safe
and are willing for someone else’s children
to be terrified.
We want to win.
But these things sound ugly
when spoken nakedly.
So bring the vestments.
Bring the flag.
Bring the Bible.
Bring the choir.
Bring someone
to pray before the cameras.
Cover the machinery.
Hide the gears.
Bless the blade.
There is an old story
about a man in the wilderness
offered all the kingdoms
of the world.
Imagine that.
All the kingdoms.
Every palace.
Every army.
Every border.
Every treasury.
Every throne.
All yours.
And he said no.
We have spent two thousand years
trying to persuade him
to reconsider.
Jesus,
we can get you elected.
Jesus,
we can make Christianity great again.
Jesus,
we can protect you
from your enemies.
Jesus,
just stand here.
Hold the flag.
Smile.
Say nothing
about the stranger.
Nothing
about the prisoner.
Nothing
about the poor.
Nothing
about the peacemakers.
Nothing
about loving enemies.
Certainly nothing
about selling possessions.
We have polling
on that.
Just give us
your name.
We will handle
the rest.
Habitual fraud
under the mask of religion.
Perhaps someday
there should be a tribunal
not for unbelief
but for misuse of belief.
For laundering cruelty
through holiness.
For hiding ambition
inside prophecy.
For calling domination
discipleship.
For baptizing nationalism.
For canonizing vengeance.
For turning God
into an authorization code.
And perhaps the witnesses
would come forward:
the migrant,
the prisoner,
the hungry child,
the bombed family,
the woman silenced
by sacred authority,
the dissenter called traitor,
the believer told
that obedience to power
was obedience to God.
One by one
they would take the stand.
And somewhere near the back
an itinerant rabbi
from Galilee
would be waiting
to testify.
But perhaps
there would be no need.
Because he has already
given his testimony.
Blessed are the poor.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Love your enemies.
Welcome the stranger.
Put away your sword.
Whatever you did
to the least of these
you did
to me.
The evidence
has been entered.
The record
is remarkably clear.
So when Caesar
wears the cross,
look beneath it.
When the empire
quotes Scripture,
keep reading.
When the ruler says
God is on our side,
ask what happens
to the people
on the other side.
When cruelty arrives
carrying a Bible,
do not confuse
the book
with the hand
that carries it.
And when they tell you
that domination is holy,
that vengeance is righteous,
that exclusion is purity,
that violence is peace,
that wealth is blessing,
that obedience is faith—
remember the charge.
Not religion.
Not faith.
Not devotion.
But
habitual fraud
under the mask
of religion.
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